The Iowa Dairy Association held conversations around the state last month on the top concerns of the state’s dairy farmers. Scott Niess is president of the Iowa Dairy Association and says the price of cattle, still near a record high, is making it tough for dairy farmers to replenish their herds. Replacements have been difficult to find, he says, and he thinks more farmers are milking cows longer. The culling rate is down, as the cost of new animals has those farmers keeping cows in the herd and milking them longer than they would otherwise. Even before we learned this week that a cow suspected of having B-S-E tested alright, Niess says markets have been starting to re-open in countries that halted imports of U.S. beef after the Mad Cow scare last December. Niess thinks it’d be beneficial for both the U.S. and Canada to open their border…and for other countries like Japan to open their borders, too. While the Asian nations haven’t yet taken down barriers to U.S. farm products since last year’s Mad Cow scare, Niess says he thinks it won’t be long now till they do. Niess thinks that’s coming, that all the nations that closed their borders since the B-S-E scare will re-open their import markets to U.S. beef, and all do it at the same time. That would prevent any change in the balance of trade among the importing and exporting nations. Niess points out that dairy farmers are also beef producers since eventually they’ll cull dairy herds and sell the animals for slaughter. He’s among hundreds of producer-investors who were saddened to see the re-opened Tama beef packing plant close againt his fall. He was one of the initial investors, and wants them to succeed, saying farmers need that market for their cattle. He’s confident “They will come up with something.” Niess is a dairy farmer in Osage, in Mitchell county, and he and his wife milk about 55 cows